Motivation Monday - Top Ten for 2016

My genealogy 'to-dos' are numerous & I never seem to make much progess, probably because I'm too easily distracted by those pesky shaking leaves* on Ancestry!

So I've decided to list the top ten things I could really do with getting to the bottom of and hope that a list will keep me focussed!

1. Finish searching the French online records for my Oldham family in Calais. The Census and Birth/Marriage/Death records are all freely available online. I've found the family in 1866, but also need to look further back to see if the previous generation spent time there and also if any of them went to Australia.
2. Transcribe sections of Joseph Woolley's diary and finish reading/copying the remainder at the Nottingham Archives. Continuing with the Oldham family, but this time in Clifton, Nottinghamshire. Joseph Woolley was a framework knitter from Clifton, as well as his own business his diary documents he commented on his neighbours and local events. I need to transcribe the pages I've already photographed and finish reading the remaining sections in the Archives.
3. Finish checking the Methodist records at the Nottinghamshire Archives. I'm mostly looking for Oldhams in these records, but other family names have cropped up too.
4. Make use of the Nottinghamshire Family History Society's research room. To find more Oldham information, specifically Thomas Oldknow Oldham's birth/baptism around 1834. Also check their online databases.
5. Finish reading Percy Richardson's war diary and finish the blog posts.
6. Tidy and reorganise documents, certificate and books. Before ordering any more!
7. Check out parish records on Find My Past. Look for my May family in Frant, Sussex from 1600 working backwards.
8. Visit some local churchyards to look for gravestones. Sawley, Moira, Donisthorpe, Church Wilne, Draycott, Basford, Ashby-de-la-Zouch & others aren't too far away to visit and record any memorial inscriptions.
9. Look for tithe maps and census information for Pilsley. To find out who lived in and/or owned my late father-in-law's farmhouse.
10. Start scanning photos. I received a Doxie Flip as a Christmas present so I'm intending to scan and share many of my photos.

So - lots to do!



*if you have your family tree uploaded to Ancestry, they kindly add a little 'shaking leaf' to any family member they may have records available for, which is usually enough to distract me from doing what I'd orginally logged on to do in the first place!

Workday Wednesday - Nottingham Lace in Calais

I've recently been searching for my Oldham family in Calais, France.

My 3xgreatgrandparents Thomas Oldham and Harriet (nee Winfield) and their sons William and Thomas are missing from the 1861 UK census, but reappear on the 1871 census with five more children, all born in Calais between 1861 and 1870.

The Archives of Pas-de-Calais had already sent me copies of the birth registrations, which reveal the dates and times of their births, both parent's ages, the mother's maiden name and the family's current address - so very useful.

The Calais Archives have digitised many of their records and they are freely available online, unlike the UK's records. The French took a census every five years from 1836; the 1866 one falls nicely in the middle of the period I'm looking for.

None of the records are indexed, so they aren't searchable by name, which means finding the correct district and working through it page by page. It's very time consuming, but well worth it - I found Thomas and his family living on the rue du Jardin des Plantes:

Thomas and his eldest son, William, were working as 'tullistes'. This is a term specific to the Calais area and means a mechanical technician highly specialised in the manufacture of tulle and lace. Thomas and Henriette (Harriet) had six children, William (12) and Thomas (10) who were born in Nottingham and John (7), Eliza (5), Enoch (2) and Anne (2 months) who were born in Calais.

From Google Maps

On the same census, just around the corner, I found Gervase Oldham, Thomas' brother, and his family. They were living on the rue du Temple.

Gervase, or Jervis, also worked as a tulliste and was living with his wife Mary (nee Taylor) and three children, James (3) and Jervas and Eliza (both aged 2 months). The family were back in Nottingham by the 1871 census, but without their daughter Eliza. By this time Gervase and Mary had had another daughter, Eliza Jane born in Calais in 1869, so it's more than likely that the first Eliza died at a young age.  More trawling through the French records should reveal if that was the case.

Also living with the family was Emma Taylor, an unmarried woman aged 21 who was working as a lace operator. She is likely to be Mary's younger sister.

So now I've filled in the gap in the 1860s for the Oldham family, I need to go back to the French records to see if I can find the births and death in Gervase and Mary's family.

I'll also be looking through the French census records to see if Thomas' and Gervase's parents, William and Eliza, were living in France without their children around 1851. They are missing from the English census of that year, but their children are in Long Eaton with their grandparents.

Workday Wednesday - Nottingham Lace Makers

If you have traced your ancestors back to Nottingham in the census years of 1841 to 1911, it is highly likely that you will have come across lace making as an occupation.

My three main lace making families are the Oldhams, who worked in Calais during the 1860s as well as Nottingham, the Jowetts and the Bucknalls.

Looking through the census returns for these families, they did many different jobs within the lace industry, such as; 'mender', 'threader', 'draughtsman', 'clipper', 'manufacturer', 'winder', and 'warehouseman.' Not having any personal knowledge of the industry, I wasn't sure exactly what these different jobs entailed, so I was delighted to find a book of memoirs written by a local author, Mark Ashfield, who was employed in the lace industry.

I found it a very enjoyable read, with detailed description of life in a Nottingham lace factory - the hours, conditions, skills and works outings. It's available here both in paperback and for Kindle.

Another book which I've found really useful is Sheila Mason's 'Nottingham Lace 1760s - 1950s', my Oldhams even get a small mention!  It's available both via Amazon and Abebooks unfortunately at quite a price.  There may be reprinted copies available at the Nottingham branch of Waterstones, where I found my copy, for £25.






I think genealogy can be so much more than just gathering a list of names and dates.  If you can fill in the background, where they lived, how they worked, it can give you a much fuller picture of their lives.

Tombstone Tuesday - St Mary's in Clifton, Nottingham

St Mary's church in Clifton, Nottingham has a lovely setting.  Tucked away at the back of the old village it stands in front of Clifton Hall which itself overlooks the River Trent and Clifton Grove.

Whilst I was studying History at the Nottingham Trent University campus next door to the village, we had a class visit to the church to see the building and consider its development over the years, but I hadn't realised back then that I had ancestors buried in the church yard.

Spending time in the Nottinghamshire Archives this summer I had traced my Oldham family back to Clifton, so a couple of weeks ago I revisited the church to see if there were any family grave stones.  To my delight I found my 7x Great Grandparents Gervas & Mary Oldham just in front of the church door.

Gervas was born in Clifton, the son of John and Elizabeth, and had been baptised at St. Mary's on the 24 Oct 1731.  He married Mary Clarke in the same church on the 24 Dec 1751.

Going through the parish records in the archives I had found seven of their children; their second son William being my 6x Great Grandfather.  I also knew their eldest son Thomas had died in 1767.

Mary died in June 1793; Gervas died in October 1811 aged 82.

"Sacred to the memory of Jarvis Oldham who departed this life Oct 4th 1811 Aged 82 years.
Also
Mary his wife who died June 11th 1793 aged 61 years."

                                                   

But I was shocked when I read the inscription at the very bottom of the gravestone:

"Likewise Nine of their Children who died Early in Life."

The records in the archives had given me no idea that Gervas and Mary had had to bury so many of their children.  They can't have had an easy life.  My next step might be to find out a bit more about the social conditions of Clifton in this time, to see how they lived then.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Alice's Brooch

Over the years I have inherited a lot of family photos, which have taken some time to sort into some kind of logical order (Or what I see as a logical order!).

I have only two photos of my great-grandmother, Alice Oldknow Oldham.  She was born in Nottingham in December 1886 and died aged only 40 in June 1927.

I was delighted to receive this picture and even more so when I also inherited the brooch Alice is wearing at her throat in the picture.

The centre of the brooch holds two photos and can be turned round to show either picture.  You can see the photo of Alice's husband, Ernest Richardson above.

The other side of it has a photo of her son, my grandfather, Fred Richardson as a toddler.

It's lovely to have this brooch as it feels like a connection to the past & to ancestors that I never met.

Hints & tips

Ancestry's Roots Web site is a fantastic genealogical resource that,I have to admit, I probably don't use as much as I could.

I've found the mailing lists to be useful, I subscribe to the Nottingham, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire and North Yorkshire ones.  You can email a query and your fellow subscribers will try & help you with it.  I've never emailed a query in, but I find just reading through the ones that crop up can give me an idea of what other resources are available & where they can be found.

A recent post on the Nottingham list by the well known genealogist Roy Stockdill has given me further links to follow with my Oldknow-Oldham family.

He shares a tip on searching within FreeBMD  a site I have already found invaluable in finding BMD (Birth, Marriage & Death) indexes;

This little trick I discovered can be very useful indeed if you have an unusual surname and
especially for those doing one-name studies. Here it is.....
When researching at FreeBMD, try this.....
1) Leave the surname field blank.
2) Enter into the first name field your surname of interest with either a plus sign or an asterisk
in front of it - this is vital and either the plus symbol or an asterisk both work.
3) Select All Types and press the Search button.
What you will get is a list of events (births, marriages and deaths) in which your surname of
interest appears as a MIDDLE forename. 

In my case I searched for +Oldknow & narrowed the search to Nottinghamshire, which gave the following results:


Births
Mar 1854 Oldham Thomas Oldknow Radford 7b 166
Mar 1854 Palethorp Thomas Oldknow Basford 7b 141
Deaths
Jun 1854 Palethorpe Sarah Oldknow Radford 7b 112
Jun 1854 Palethorpe Thomas Oldknow Basford 7b 95
Births
Jun 1856 OLDHAM Thomas Oldknow Radford 7b 168
Marriages
Dec 1856 Brandrith George Oldknow Radford 7b 313
Births
Mar 1857 Jones Henry Oldknow Shardlow 7b 356
Mar 1857 Palethorp David Oldknow Basford 7b 157
Births
Jun 1858 Oldham John Oldknow Nottingham 7b 200
Jun 1858 Oldknow John Oldknow Nottingham 7b 200
Births
Mar 1859 PALETHORPE Joseph Oldknow Basford 7b 149
Mar 1861 Palethorp Samuel Oldknow Basford 7b 741
Deaths
Sep 1861 Palethorp Samuel Oldknow Basford 7b 82
Births
Dec 1862 PALETHORP Hannah Oldknow Basford 7b 149
Marriages
Dec 1864 Oldham Thomas Oldknow Nottingham 7b 380
Births
Dec 1867 Harrison John Oldknow Shardlow 7b 355
Marriages
Dec 1873 Oldham William Oldknow Nottingham 7b 490
Births
Mar 1875 Wright Frank Oldknow Nottingham 7b 250
Mar 1875 WRIGHT Frank Oldknow Nottingham 7b 260
Births
Dec 1875 Clarke Frederick Oldknow Basford 7b 107
Deaths
Dec 1875 WRIGHT Frank Oldknow Nottingham 7b 159
Births
Sep 1876 Wright William Oldknow Nottingham 7b 272
Marriages
Dec 1877 Oldham John Oldknow Nottingham 7b 559
Births
Dec 1878 WRIGHT Frank Oldknow Nottingham 7b 268
Births
Dec 1880 OLDHAM Wilfred Oldknow Nottingham 7b 264
Births
Mar 1881 Oldham Edith Oldknow Nottingham 7b 287
Marriages
Sep 1882 Palethorpe Joseph Oldknow Basford 7b 188
Births
Mar 1883 Palethorpe Annie Oldknow Basford 7b 241
Marriages
Jun 1883 Palethorpe Thomas Oldknow Basford 7b 191
Births
Sep 1884 Oldham Gertrude Oldknow Nottingham 7b 301
Births
Mar 1885 Swann Louisa Oldknow Basford 7b 118
Marriages
Jun 1885 PALETHORPE David Oldknow Nottingham 7b 410
Births
Mar 1886 PALETHORPE Joseph Oldknow Basford 7b 217
Mar 1886 PALETHORPE Mary Oldknow Basford 7b 256
Deaths
Sep 1886 Oldham William Oldknow Nottingham 7b 138
Births
Mar 1887 Oldham Alice Oldknow Nottingham 7b 255
Births
Dec 1887 Palethorpe David Oldknow Basford 7b 228
Births
Mar 1888 Palethorpe Helen Oldknow Basford 7b 233
Deaths
Jun 1889 Oldham Thomas Oldknow Nottingham 7b 148
Marriages
Dec 1891 Oldham Annie Oldknow Nottingham 7b 680
Births
Mar 1892 Burrows William Oldknow Shardlow 7b 444
Deaths
Sep 1896 Oldham Edith Oldknow Nottingham 7b 177
Marriages
Dec 1897 CLARK Frederick Oldknow Mansfield 7b 165
Dec 1897 Clarke Frederick Oldknow Mansfield 7b 165
Births
Sep 1898 Clarke Leslie Oldknow Mansfield 7b 101
Marriages
Dec 1898 OLDHAM Harriet Oldknow Nottingham 7b 758
Births
Jun 1901 PALETHORPE William Oldknow Basford 7b 260
Marriages
Jun 1903 Oldham Frederick Oldknow Nottingham 7b 753
Births
Jun 1904 Palethorpe Thomas Oldknow Basford 7b 290
Deaths
Dec 1904 OLDHAM Thomas Oldknow Nottingham 32 7b 273
Dec 1904 Palethorpe Thomas Oldknow Nottingham 7b 229
Marriages
Sep 1905 PALETHORPE Mary Oldknow Nottingham 7b 575
Marriages
Dec 1906 OLDHAM Gertrude Oldknow Nottingham 7b 905
Marriages
Jun 1908 Oldham Wilfred Oldknow Nottingham 7b 871
Marriages
Mar 1909 OLDHAM Alice Oldknow Nottingham 7b 510

Quite a list, with a few surnames such as Palethorpe, Swann, Clarke and Burrows that I hadn't come across before.  It's possible to check these people in the census returns and see if they can shed any more light on this branch of my family.

Time Consuming Research

We're now three episodes into the ninth series of 'Who Do You Think You Are' on BBC1.  They've all been good so far; I particularly liked Gregg Wallace's episode and how the research uncovered a much deeper story than the one passed down through his family.

But the programme does tend to give a distorted view of how difficult and slow genealogical research can be.  The celebs turn up at various archives to meet a researcher who has all the answers ready for them, but they don't mention the hours of previous research that has been done to arrive at that point.

I've recently spent a full two and a half days in Nottingham Archives looking through their Methodist birth & marriage records for the family members I've failed to find in the C of E records.  The later Non-Conformist records haven't been micro-filmed yet, so it feels like a treat to be looking through the original registers.

Anyway, after all those hours of searching I have still only managed to find more distant relatives in them, Gervase Oldham's daughters' marriages are the closest ones. I also spotted some Bucknalls, who I've been looking for on behalf of my Great-Aunt.  I still have several more Methodist records to check and then there's the Baptist ones to start!

I don't see this as a waste of time, the registers are fascinating in themselves, and if you can't find your family members in the obvious ones, you have no choice but to be thorough and work your way through the lot!  But WDYTYA gives the impression that the answers are immediately available, which they very often aren't. I wonder how many people are put off researching their trees further when they realise it won't all be handed to them on a plate?

The Nottingham Oldhams

Back in autumn last year, I went in search of family graves in Nottingham’s General Cemetery.

Nottingham General Cemetery

The cemetery is fairly big and contains approximately 29000 graves.  The Nottingham Family History Society have memorial inscriptions for the graves, so I knew there were existing headstones there and I found the plot numbers by looking through the burial indexes in Nottingham Archives, they also had a map showing the original plot numbers from when the cemetery was founded in 1837.  The map is huge, it covers almost the whole of one study table in the archives, but I managed to get a reasonable idea of where to start looking and a very kind Roots Chat member helped me further with a map of areas which corresponds with the NFHS memorial transcripts.

Plot 2010 William Oldham (1814-1899) my 4x great-grandfather
Plot 2010 Thomas Oldknow Oldham (1856-1899) my 2x great uncle
The plot is the space on the left - no headstone for this one

Plot 2424 Thomas Oldknow Oldham (1843-1904) my 3x great grandfather
Plot 2424 Harriett Oldham (nee Winfield) (1828-1904) my 3x great grandmother
Plot 2424 Harold Claude Hammersley (?-1944)

Plot 1980 William Oldknow Oldham (1854-1886) my 2x great grandfather
Plot 1980 Alice Oldham (nee May) (1847-1938) my 2x great grandmother
Plot 1980 Edith Oldknow Oldham (1881-1896) my 2x great aunt

I haven’t yet placed a William Henry Oldham who shares a plot no 2010. I haven’t found him with the family in any of the census, so my next job will be to find out how he fits in.

I also need to find where the ‘Oldknow’ middle name comes from.  There are a couple of possibilites.  Most likely is that it’s a mother’s maiden name, or they could have some connection to the lacemaking Oldknows of Nottingham.  If a family had a vague connection to a more illustrious local family, it wasn’t unknown for them to annex their surname to their own as a form of one-up-man-ship with the neighbours!

So my next step with this family will be to look William Henry up in the Census and follow him back, to see if I can find him with his parents when he was much younger. Hopefully this will tell me where he fits in.